Dear JNU, Don’t Like The System? Get In And Change It

I was badly shaken to see Maj. Gen. GD Bakshi (retd.) break down on a Times Now debate on 18 February. A brave soldier who vanquished the enemies, who saw his men fall in line of duty without wincing, was made to cry on national television by the kind of intriguing politics of which JNU is clearly the epicentre and epitome.

The developments in JNU and elsewhere had been causing me anxiety, but to see a proud commander break down pleading that flag is not a matter of debate, the issue, for me, is no longer of campus frivolity or rivalry of factions.

Like many, I have also been a rebel in school/college days. Today, as servant of the state I uphold what I differed from in youth, and I tell my kids what I myself resented in younger days. Perhaps, we were blessed to have teachers who put their hand on our shoulder and lovingly told us that we are not fighting the British anymore, and that if we feel agitated about something, that seething anger should be a driver to enter the system and set things right as there is simply no other alternative.

JNU’s brand of activism now looks like anti-establishment on steroids. When freedom of expression is so dear to them, when they are so convinced of their ideas and ideology that they are ‘ready’ to take on state in the forests and on international fora, why are they chickening to enter into public service? Perhaps long hours of arduous study and focussed efforts to enter into the system is harder than to abuse the state and establishment and continue with MPhils and PhDs to eternity on taxpayer-funded scholarships, fees, food and hostel. Perhaps, they don’t have as good teachers as we had.

Which system is perfect and who will set the things right? If not us then who? Who would walk to JNU and tell the teachers and students that we are not fighting the British anymore?

I am deeply anguished and pained, a commander who led his men in harm’s way, saw them fall defending inches of territory and the dignity of flag was forced to defend the need of the national flag be seen above party politics. For me it was one of the most painful moments of my life. What has campus politics and activism come to?

World over radicalised youth have been the torch bearers of fundamentalist violence as seen in the recent past. ‘Senior’ commanders of terror groups are in their 30s and their foot soldiers in teens and 20s. With this background, why wouldn’t and why shouldn’t the country be alarmed and anxious of the environs in some of the universities which breed violent contempt for the state, trivialising in the process the very issues for which our men have died? How would we face those who lost their dear ones, defending what is now a fashionable object of debate and protest? Why did and what for, did we let our soldiers die in the past seven decades? Why haven’t we been able to tell our own citizens of the enormous price we as a nation have paid and continue to pay in Dantewada to Doda to Dras?

Yes, ours is not a perfect country, there is injustice, there is inequality, but where are the teachers who would harness the anger and disillusionment of youth with the establishment to make them into change agents? If not the youth, who else has energy to turn the tide?

Finally, what should we do if someone drills a hole in the dyke? We had been insulting the brave men for far too long, but never did I see a proud soldier break down before. It is time that JNU gets a reboot and be told that India now is an independent nation, and the only way to change is to work hard and enter into the system and set things right. There is simply on other alternative.